WomenAidInternational

USAF OPERATION PROVIDE PROMISE
& OPERATION PROVIDE HOPE

The United States set up Operation
Provide Promise and, in cooperation with UNHCR and the World Food
Programme (WFP), began airdropping relief supplies to parts of Bosnia
-Herzegovina on 28 February 1993. By late November, more than
1,482 airdrop flights had been flown by the participating nations,
delivering over 10,100 tons of food and 167 tons of medical supplies to
places like Srebrenica, Zepa, Cerska, Konjevic, Goradze, Tuzla, Mostar,
Maglaj, and Tesanj.

AIR LAND
- AIR DROP

U.S., French and German cargo aircraft taxi for
takeoff at Rhein-Main Air
Base in Germany for an Operation Provide Promise airdrop mission over
central Bosnia -Herzegovina.

WomenAid International became one of
the main partners of Operation Provide Promise, supplying high protein
biscuits ( HPB’s) donated to WomenAid by the UK Ministry of
Agriculture, Food, and Fisheries. The Overseas Development
Administration funded WomenAid to undertake the transportation and
logistics for distribution of over 10,000 tons of HPB’s. WomenAid
delivered approximately 3000 tons to the Rhein-Mann Air Base, Germany
for the central Bosnia airdrop and the Ancona Air Base, Italy for the
Sarajevo airlift.

The regional co-ordinator
for the United Nations World Food Programme, wrote to WomenAid
International to say this support 'undoubtedly saved lives.'

Supplies used in the airdrops were
donated by the European Community, Germany, Japan, Austria, Holland,
Belgium, Turkey, Denmark, Britain, the United States and the World
Health Organisation.

Once
over the drop zone, it takes only a few seconds to roll the bundles out
the back of the C-130’s cargo bay. 26 foot parachutes were attached to
the tops of the bundles of food and medical supplies.

The purpose of the
parachutes was not so much to slow the fall of the bundles – they hit
the ground at 60 mph – but to stabilize them for accuracy.

C-130 drops aid over
Tesanj.
The aid
bundles sit on thick layers of corrugated cardboard to protect the
contents on impact.

On a typical night airdrop missions
were flown by six U.S. C-130 Hercules and by one French and one German
Transall. Each mission took about six hours.

In early 1993 WomenAid
International had also participated in another U.S. airlift, ‘Operation
Provide Hope’, delivering aid supplies to the republic of Georgia in the
South Caucasus.